92. and 93. Hidden Names; Anansi and Mr. Able. [[Story]]
These two numbers are closely related to number [69]. The plot turns upon tricks to discover a hidden name. The only difference between them is that in one story it is possession of one or more girls’ names, in the next, that of a person whose name the girls alone know, upon which the plot depends. All the variants play upon the idea of concealing a listener to surprise the keeper of the secret (invariably girls) into betraying each other. See Jekyll, 11–13, where the king and queen kill themselves, as in number [93], when they hear the girls’ names sung.
Compare Barker, 45–49; Dayrell, 79–80; Dennett, 35–38; Parsons, Andros Island, 117.
In Dayrell, Tortoise gets the wives to call out the husband’s name in fright, and he is so ashamed when he hears it that he takes to the water.
In Barker, Anansi drops down bananas sweetened with honey to the girls and they call to each other in surprise.
94. The King’s Three Daughters. [[Story]]
This story may be a fragment of the hidden name series in which the song has lost the revelation of the name, and the introduction omits the trick to discover it. If so, it has become a fixed variant. P. Smith, 35–37, tells it much as in the present version.
The story has points of resemblance to the European tale of the boy who is admitted to the princess’s chamber in the form of a singing bird. See number 113 and compare Spanish-American forms, JAFL 25: 191–208; JAFL 27: 135–137.